Thursday, April 12

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Thursday

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”  But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”     -       John 20:24-25

The case of Doubting Thomas raises a very interesting question – Is it wrong or sinful to doubt?  On the surface, this is relatively simple question.  However, I think we will find that the answer is not quite a so simple.  As with many things, the Bible gives us a very nuanced view of this issue of doubt.

First, we must admit that doubt is a common issue with all Christians great and small.  What believer can truly boast that they have never had any doubts?  Second, we should acknowledge that God often uses doubt to help us grow and mature as Christians by eventually strengthening us in our weakness and afflictions.  But does this make doubt a good thing?  Just because God can use something for our good, does not necessarily make that thing good.  God used wicked pagan nations in the Old Testament to chastise Israel and bring them to repentance, but that doesn’t make them good.

Unbelief is clearly a sin.  Hebrews 3:18-19, And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?  So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.  Unbelief plunged the first man and woman (Adam & Eve), and subsequently the entire human race into ruin and misery.  But is unbelief the same things as doubt?  Is doubt truly a sin?

James chapter 1 has some pretty harsh things to say about doubting and doubters. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.  For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.   – James 1:5-8

It sounds like James is telling us that doubt is indeed sinful.  However, it is important to note that what James is warning against is coming to God with a heart full of doubt.  In other words, we should not expect God to give us what we desire if we do not really even believe in His ability to do so!

Psalm 73 is actually a poem about one man’s journey from doubt to firm belief in God.  The Psalmist, a man named Asaph, tells about how he began to doubt God’s goodness when he saw how all too often the evil people seem to prosper while the righteous suffer.  Asaph describes his battle with doubt as losing his footing or slipping from a path.  Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.  But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.  – Psalm 73:1-3

The turning point in the Psalm, and in the life of Asaph, comes in verses 16-17, when Asaph enters God’s temple to worship. When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.  Psalm 73:16-17

Finally, we see Asaph having his doubts resolved and actually coming to a deeper and stronger faith in God as a result of his doubts.  My favorite part of this Psalm is verse 26, where Asaph says, My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

So, to return to the original question, is doubt sinful?  The answer appears to be “not necessarily”.  I think we must make a distinction between unbelief and doubt, unbelief is the end result of doubting gone unchecked.  Doubt is a slippery slope and unbelief is the dark valley we tumble into unless our momentum is stopped.  The Christian life is akin to walking down the narrow road to eternal life.  Along that path our foot may catch loose ground from time to time and we may slide.  These are moments of doubt.  Faith is a catching hold of the hand of God to help keep us from falling into the valley of unbelief.

Jeff Frazier